Albanian rebels vow revenge for comrade's death

Published: Saturday, April 08, 2000

GREME, Yugoslavia {AP} At a funeral for a fallen comrade, self-styled leaders of an ethnic Albanian rebel group vowed Friday to step up attacks in southern Serbia despite pressure from the United States and others to stop.

The emergence of a new Albanian rebel group in Serbia has raised fears in Washington and other Western capitals that the fighting could spill over into Kosovo and nearby Macedonia, perhaps involving Yugoslav forces pursuing rebels across poorly defined boundaries.

Several thousand people gathered for the funeral in Kosovo to bury Ismet Aliu, 19, in a local "martyr's cemetery" reserved for Kosovo Liberation Army fighters killed during fighting last year with Yugoslav Serb forces in the province.

Aliu's family said the young Kosovo resident was shot by a Serb sniper while on patrol inside Serbia with the rebels, known by their Albanian initials as the UCPMB. His death suggests that rebels fighting in Serbia have expanded their recruiting to ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

"He will be a source of inspiration, not only for our soldiers but also for all the future soldiers," a man introduced as a member of the UCPMB general staff told several thousand mourners at the cemetery.